I’d like to start off by saying that the Fourth amendment is “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizers, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or Affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” That is a declaration of privacy that we all are entitled too. I started off this by quoting it in its entirety because this is the foundation for defending the violation of rights I have come to learn of. This is a right for all citizens regardless of age. I understand that parents and legal guardians have a lot of discretion on how to correct their child and interpret their rights, but there are limits. My research will be interpreting these limits and explaining why and when these limits are breached in youth treatment centers.
Just a month or so ago I was pretty desperate trying to find employment, so when I looked on the job board and found a youth ranch supervisor position was available with 15 hour shifts and 8 hours of sleep each shift it seemed like a dream job. I applied and got an interview, but before the interview I went to their website. It was very professional and set a scene of a nice, quite, ranch-type boarding school, with students full of smiles and employees raving about how great of an environment it is for teens with issues.
When I went in for the interview it looked a little different than the website, which made sense, almost all these children will never have their parents actually visit the campus. The rules are that their parents can only visit once over their ten month stay. A rule that is not uncommon among most of these types of programs, which seems counterproductive if the goal of these schools is to teach them how to function in their family environment. Nevertheless I was still excited going into the interview even with the deceptive advertising. I still expected the job would let me be a good uplifting example to the youth. Just like when I worked at a Boy Scouts camp but after the shift manager spoke to us that idea was shot down. With comments like “I get very worried when the kids like my staff right off” “we aren’t their counselors and we don’t give advice or talk with them about their problems.” From the first interview it was clear that our job was to make sure the kids obeyed all the rules all the time and our only role was enforcement. The job was for all purposes a prison guard.
Even with the new realization that this “ranch” was in all proposes a jail for youth, I accepted a second interview. This interview was a lot more personal they asked me questions about my mistakes as a child and if I myself had any issues like drugs or self-abuse. I felt like these questions were very inappropriate but the reasons of why they were asking them confused me even more, they were looking for someone who didn’t understand the kids and their issues. Every time he asked me a question concerning drug use or emotional problems as a child and I answered no he shook his head yes with approval. When I admitted to mistakes he gave a disapproving look then I had to reply back that I would not feel sorry for their problems. He loved that comment and greeted it with a wide smile. After that he told me something that was very heartless he said “these kids aren’t gifted by any means they didn’t get here by being the smartest person in the class” After that comment I knew that the job wasn’t for me and blew the rest of the interview because I knew then this “ranch” was a prison and I was to be an insensitive guard and that idea disturbed me, these were just children not grown up adults. Children need love and a sense of family, not this environment of heartlessness and that is clearly what this “ranch” is with the head man saying comments like the quote above.
On my drive back home I thought of the ‘ranch” and a lot of questions came to my mind, the first one was that the “ranch” was a jail and why would I ever want to work at a jail as a prison guard? The second was that the jail is a private one why is it okay for a private company to run a 24 hour lock down school with children who have zero rights? If a parent treated a child on their own this way they would be put in jail for abuse, so why is it okay for a school to do it? The other question I asked was who makes the decision for these children? Who decides that a 24 hour lockdown facility is what a child needs to get them on the right path? Shouldn’t a judge be deciding if incarceration is what a teenager needs?
When I came home I looked into the subject and found out that this troubled youth school along with plenty of others, strip search their students on a regular basis. I found this confusing because I thought that public school officials and juvenile detention centers are the only cases were you have authority to make a child go nude against their will when the safety of others is threatened. Private schools do not have the authority to set policy’s that go past what the public sector is allowed to do, it would seem that they should have even less authority to preform strip searches. In all the unmoral activity going on in these trouble youth centers, wither they are called camps, schools, or ranches I feel like this activity is the most atrocious.
The ethical question of strip searching is a heavily pressed one when it comes to adults. As I watch the news I see story’s every few months of a woman or man who was unlawfully searched at an airport, or talk of a new machine called the “backscatter” in which you get scanned to help make airports safer but on the other hand invades a person’s privacy, causing various lawsuits on the grounds of braking the fourth admendment (www.jdcstripsearchcase.com). With all the attention of theses privacy issues, the issues of underage youth and their unregulated strip searches seems to go unnoticed. It’s understandable that to protect our society strip searches are necessary in some situations, but there has been a handful of law suits and court cases for unreasonable searches. These searches have taken place in regular learning environments like high schools to government run Juvenile detention Centers and to privately run boarding schools.
The Minnehaha County Juvenile Detention Center had a policy similar to trouble youth schools where they would perform strip searches on all its prisoners. This policy brought a law suit titled Smook v. Minnehaha County where Jodie Smook challenged the constitutionality of the policy of mandatory strip searches. The case was settled in favor of Jodie Smook and a class action was added on to include anyone who was taken in on non-felony offenses to the Minnehaha County JDC from 1997 to 2003 (Settlement Information). This case sets a precedent that these strip searches are in clear violation of the fourth amendment and if this case isn’t clear enough on the legality of the topic hopefully the Supreme Court can add more depth.
The Supreme Court case Safford Unified School District NO. 1 v. April Redding (2009). Involved a 13 year old honor Student Savana Redding, She was strip searched for allegedly having prescription strength Ibuprofen.(6)This information was based on rumors of friends. The court ruled 8-1 that the search of Savana violated the fourth amendment. Justice Stevens is quoted in saying “it does not require a constitutional Scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13 year old child is an invasion of constitutional rights of some magnitude. This is a case in which clearly established law meets clearly outrageous conduct.” The Supreme Courts decision was is to make a national standard on how far searches can go for alleged violations of policies. Based on the ruling for searches to be performed they need to have a “reasonable expectation of actually retrieve drugs From Savana’s underwear to justify such a intrusive search.” This is a standard is very high, a lot higher than the standards of the past. This ruling happened just about two years ago so it is reasonable to assume that these new laws on strip searches are not yet applied to every school across the country including at risk youth schools which are now violating this new standard. They strip search every child that goes into their program and they do not expect the majority of the students to have prohibited items. It doesn’t take a lawyer to see that this is in clear violation the court’s ruling.
Safety is pretty important for everyone in deciding where they will live, everyone who lives anywhere is concerned about it. It’s one reason why prisons are usually out in the middle of nowhere because once in a while prisoners escape. It’s safe to say that no one wants to live and work next to a jail, there ugly, sad to look at and lower property values, compared to a prison living next to a cemetery seems 100x better. These ideas are causing a debate In Jacksonville, NC there is talk about moving their jail out of the downtown area. For a verity of reasons, it causes the city to lose tax revue on the buildings that would otherwise be there if a jail wasn’t occupying the property. It also hurdles the city’s efforts of redeveloping a struggling downtown (Davis).
Surprisingly private youth detention centers have no such restraints on where they open up their schools. If these students are such a risk to society to require complete lockdown on them is it not safe to assume that they are at risk for escaping and causing danger to the community around the detention center? Most city councils seem have ignored these risks and have decided to have a different view and allow these schools to get built just about anywhere they please, in fact there is not one but two just about half a block from my house, Disguised as hotels.
This is not by chance that the centers look like hotels. In fact the Saint George City Council mandates that these trouble youth programs do not have signs that indicate it as a troubled youth school, Treatment Center or rehab. In reading the city council’s minutes from Nov, 1 2002 I uncovered the council’s thoughts on the subject. In these notes the owner of Cinnamon Hills wanted to expand his program and wanted a sign on his building to indicate that it was Cinnamon Hills. The council did not want a sign for his program because they “..don’t want St George Boulevard to be a rehab street” and Council Member Allen commented “she did not have a problem with the sign because most people do not know what Cinnamon Hills is, as it does not say treatment center.” (www.sgcity.org) From these comments we can take that the city council does not care about having Saint George as the world headquarters for youth detention centers, but they do care if people actually realize it. In the council meeting the owner of Cinnamon Hills did get his program expanded to 134 students instead of 120 and was able to put up a sign titled “Cinnamon Hills”. For the city council they see these schools as a way to give locals jobs what they don’t realize is when keep these schools in the dark hidden from the public is the reason they get away with the abuse, when no one knows no one can say speak up.
On a quick Google search of youth treatment centers 14 came up for the St George area, there may just be more than that. To put that in perspective there are only 11 elementary schools in the same area. Given that the average number of students at the treatment centers are only around 100 children and the enrollment Elementary schools have at least twice that number its still easy to notice a elementary school and with the huge number or treatment centers the residents of the town are noticing. With talking to friends and citizens from Saint George It seems to be getting harder and harder for the city to fool them into thinking that these schools are not in fact all over town. When people drive past these facilities they see hotels that you are unable to check into and fences surrounding the complex’s. To give you a better idea of the area I am referring to here is a photo with arrows pointing to my own residency apartment complex Raintree along with Trouble Youth centers Cinnamon Hills and Red rock Canyon School.
As you can see in the above picture the location is crowded and busy, to combat in marketing these “schools” have decided to resort to lying on their websites acting as if their program was in a more pleasing building or location. As I visited the Cinnamon Hills website found a lot of photos of a school that wasn’t the real Cinnamon Hills this is just was one of the deceitful photo’s Showing their spacious courtyard, when no such courtyard exists.(www.cinnamonhills.com) 
Here is a picture of the actual cinnamon hills facility. It’s not even shaped the same as the building on the website.
The photos brought up another concern, it made me think about the parents, wouldn’t when the parents came to drop off their children at this school they would realize that the school had lied to them on their website? Well I came to find out that most parents are never going to actually see the facility, thanks to companies like Youth Transport.(www.youthtransport.us) They are based out of Saint George and will transport your child from anywhere and drop them off at a boarding school, residential treatment center or wilderness camp. I guess the point of this is to take away the emotional distress of the parents having to drop the children off themselves. In doing that It also makes it easier for the programs to have faulty advertising like the faulty website of Cinnamon Tree.
The job experience at of the staff at Cinnamon Tree and these other treatment centers is lacking, there have been numerous deaths due to the inexperience, poor management and immaturity of staff, causing lawsuits at the majority of the treatment centers. Red Rock Canyon School has had a wrongful death suit brought against them, and that’s is just one block away from Dixie State College. They have had a lawsuit filed by the parents of Katherine Lank for wrongful death. The facility wanted to settle but the parents are pushing for a public jury. The staff took them out in a dangerous canyon and let two students hike by themselves. The facility was not properly equipped they had no medical equipment and no training on first aid. They waited an hour before calling for an ambulance.(Vigh) This lawsuit is not out of the ordinary for these schools.
In fact just right across the street at Cinnamon Hills they too have legal problems with a case in 2008 involving an employee having a sexual encounter with a 17 year old girl who ran away from the facility. The investigation uncovered that the employee corroborated with the girl on how to get her to escape out of the facility. He was booked into jail on investigation of unlawful sexual conduct by a person in a position of trust.(Deseret News) I find it very odd that all the facility’s I look into I can find criminal charges or lawsuits against the facility. It obvious that haven’t researched every school in the nation but I have looked into at least 20 and none of them had completely clean records.
If the cases and information I have shown thus far has not swayed you into believing that this system is illegal I would like to mention a section of the fourteenth amendment. “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (14th Amendment)The law states that any person in the states jurisdiction has this right. These children are not given this basic right. These children are getting deprived of all rights without due process. I am not arguing that no children need to be in treatment centers, The argument I have is that parents and for private companies are out of bounds on these decisions. A judge needs to decide what an appropriate punishment is for these children. Some might disagree that they entitled to due process, however in the supreme Court case Schall v. Martin, 467 US 253 - Supreme Court 1984 (Vivon) we can see clearly that they are in fact covered over the 14th amendment with quotes like “..yet still afford juveniles the due process guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment.” It shows the courts out rightly agree that juveniles do indeed get due process.
It is a fact that the laws are there we have read through them, there is the supreme court’s ruling on unlawful strip searches, there is child abuse laws, there is laws giving children the right to due process. Their still needs more accountability in these programs. A national standard of review needs to be set for these treatment centers. Since the majority of troubled youth schools house children from out of state, this can’t just be a state issue it’s a federal one. Thanks to Representative George Millar from California he is sponsoring a bill titled H.R.6358 Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act. This bill would make a stronger government oversight for these programs and would make the physical and emotional abuse stop by making the programs more accountable. (http://thomas.loc.gov) This bill has been Introduced and passed by the House it is currently awaiting Senate approval.
We have laws, bill’s and angry parents but with all the negative perspectives of these treatment centers and talk of more government oversight. I think it should be fair to mention that everything can be done right. It is obvious that teens will put themselves in positions that pose a threat to the rest of their family and will in some cases have to go to a Rehab or boarding school however; this is not the way it should be handled. We need a stronger justice system for our youth we need to give them the rights they are entitled too. Let us give them due process and if they make a mistake so reprehensible that it warrants a treatment center then so be it but a judge should make that decision. Give them an example of what happens in the real world of adulthood. That way they would have no one but them to blame for their mistakes, not the parents for making the decision to send them away.
It’s clear that compassion is a feeling that’s very void in the treatment center programs but we don’t have to just be discouraged we can create a higher standard for the staff at these centers a standard that all staff knows how to treat teens with issues. Let us stand against the unlawful strip searches preformed every day at the centers in our community. This is literally the world’s headquarters for troubled youth programs with an unprecedented 14 treatment centers and with the World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs and Schools or abbreviated WWASP headquarters is based out of saint George. This makes our town the center point for change, if our community decided to reform these treatment centers it would send a ripple effect all across this industry. We don’t have to see our town in a negative light, so what if we have become the world headquarters for these centers, what matters is that we take steps to change the industry for the better. So what if we all cant bring class action lawsuits and supreme court cases but the one thing we can do is talk to your city council members they are the ones who approve these schools if they are educated on what really goes on I am sure they would be a lot more hesitant in issuing out permits for more centers and expansion to the centers that are already here.
Sources
"14th Amendment." Legal Information Institute. Cornell University. Web. 04 Apr. 2011. <http://topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv>.
"Bill Summary & Status - 110th Congress (2007 - 2008) - H.R.6358 - All Information." Library of Congress. 26 June 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2011. <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR06358:@@@L>.
Cinnamon HIlls. Advertisement. Cinnamon Hills Youth Crisis Center. Web. 03 Apr. 2011. <http://www.cinnamonhills.com/>.
Davis, William. "County's Jail Plans Run Afoul of City Zoning Laws." Jacksonville Daily News. 24 Nov. 2001. Web. 30 Mar. 2011.
"EPIC - Whole Body Imaging Technology and Body Scanners ("Backscatter" X-Ray and Millimeter Wave Screening)." Electronic Privacy Information Center. Jan. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/backscatter/>.
Essex, Nathan. "The U.S. Supreme Court Raises the Bar for Strip Searches in Public Schools." Clearing House 83.3 (2010): 105-108. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011.
"Man Busted for Sex with 17-year-old Runaway | Deseret News." Deseret News. 24 Jan. 2008. Web. 03 Apr. 2011. <http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695246913/Man-busted-for-sex-with-17-year-old-runaway.html>.
"Settlement Information & Claims Procedure." Smook v. Minnehaha County Settlement Info Home. Smook v. Minnehaha County Claims Administrator, 2009. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. <http://www.jdcstripsearchcase.com/Information/tabid/645/Default.aspx>.
United Sates Of America. Saint George City. City Council. City Council Minutes. Saint George City, 21 Nov. 2002. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. <http://www.sgcity.org/citycouncil/print.php?ID=286>.
Vigh, Micheal. "Parents Sue Over Girl's Hiking Death." The Trouble With The Troubled Teen Industry. Salt Lake Tribune, 29 May 2002. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://teenadvocatesusa.homestead.com/redrockcanyonschool.html>.
Vivon, Lisa A. "Supreme Court Holds Juvenile Preventive Detention Under New York Statute Not Violative of Due Process: Schall v. Marti." Boston Law Review. 9 Oct. 1985. Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
"Youth Transport Services." Troubled Teen Youth Transport Services. Web. 03 Apr. 2011. <http://www.youthtransport.us/>.
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